They work tirelessly all day under the harsh rays of a blazing sun, the stench of death and destruction around them. They are a team of Jewish heroes who are working around the clock with one mission: the recovery of human bodies.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

There’s a popular weekly satirical show in Israel called Eretz Nehederet. In a recent episode, an actor playing Benny Gantz, the former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and newcomer to Israeli politics, is asked how he’s feeling.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

(JTA) Norwegian rapper not charged with hate speech
A Norwegian rapper who cursed Jews while performing at an event in Oslo promoting multiculturalism will not be charged with hate speech, because his words may have been criticism of Israel, prosecutors said.

Did Israeli soldiers violate international law by deliberately targeting unarmed children, journalists, health workers, and people with disabilities during the past year of violence along the Israel-Gaza border?

(JTA) After the New England Patriots beat the favoured Kansas City Chiefs to reach their third straight Super Bowl – their amazing ninth in less than 20 years – CBS sports analyst Boomer Esiason made an intriguing statement, namely that Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

We are winging our way towards Human Rights Day (21 March), the first public holiday of the year, which coincides with Purim. I can’t help but wonder about our concept of human rights and what it means, not least of all, to our government.

President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed in parliament last week that South Africa intended to downgrade its diplomatic presence in Israel. The foreign affairs bureaucracy was working “feverishly” on the matter. “The decision to downgrade the embassy in Israel is informed precisely by the violation of the rights of Palestinians and we are therefore putting pressure on Israel. But at the same time, we are saying we are willing to play a role and ensure there is peace,” said Ramaphosa.

Undeterred, and in spite of the hate-filled disparagement that spewed forth when Shashi Naidoo uttered positive comments about Israel and Jews last year, Haafizah Bhamjee penned a reasoned and sensible article on Israel and the Palestinians in the SA Jewish Report of 22 February.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

One of the questions that haunts the story of Purim and moves silently through the lines of the Megillah is clear and chillingly simple: How could Jews have chosen to remain in Persian Shushan? It was so clearly an environment in which anti-Semitism was so prevalent that a genocide could be planned and almost implemented without comment by broader society.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

Join the conversations, have your say

JR Online users are having their say, as usual. While the website's peak day saw well over 12,000 users, it can also have as many as 300-plus comments posted on a busy day. Many are on older stories users have serendipitously happened along. Some are friendly greetings and exchanges, but often they descend into Chirp-fests – where users with differing views enjoy a good old argy-bargy on an issue. We list this week’s latest hotspots, and point users to a few of the Chirps posted this week - on well-commented stories long gone by…

by
ANT KATZ | Feb 22, 2017

Users continue to post dozens of new comments on this website almost every day. Sometimes this stream of user-posted content suddenly turns into a torrent - usually driven by the hot-button issues and emotions of the day – and then the hard work starts as SAJR Online, where moderators peruse every single comment posted – and escalate them to senior staffers if they are too hot to handle.

Comments critical of the publication are almost always published. Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments are never – they are immediately deleted - as is any bigotry, racism or hate speech.

Examples include: Radical student urges more empathetic community A pony-tailed Jewish revolutionary at Wits tore up posters, swore at students and clashed with police. Steven Gruzd’s account of Mitchel Joffe Hunter has garnered seven comments to date.

However, JR Online tries to project as broad a spectrum of opinion as possible and so even allows BDS posts on (what they believe to be) fair comment – and if it doesn’t specifically contravene the website’s rules - we allow it as we believe our users are interested in seeing what they say.

Comments that were blocked this week

Examples of two comments that were blocked this week for outrageous and illegal anti-Semitic comments on older posts:

Meet an inexcusable human being is a story of how a Fred Fischer of Keren Hayesod in Munich discovered something on the Facebook page Spotlighting SA, did some research and, essentially, had a teacher in KZN fired for teaching his charges to hate Jews and promoting the killing of Israelis. It has had nine comments allowed since publication, and probably 20 not allowed through by our moderators, including one particularly sick anti-Semitic one this week; and

Jews are monsters to be exterminated about the SAJBD laying a hate speech complaint with HRC after PE lawyer Maureen Jansen’s Facebook rant. “Such hate-mongering goes beyond defaming and threatening any particular group of people; they go against the culture of non-racialism on which our democracy is founded, and as such are an attack on all South Africans” said SAJBD national chairman, Jeff Katz. Only six of the many comments have been deemed fit for publication. (Aside: the Board said this week that they expected this matter will be arbitrated on at the SAHRC soon)

STORY CONTINUES BELOW IMAGE...

Don’t be shy – have your say too…

Because users like to read what their fellow-users say, JR Online always displays how many comments there are relating to any story we publish - in the teaser section. The most recent of these teasers, indicating where the most Chirps are, can be found on our HOME PAGE - or older ones can be found by going to the main tab for LATEST stories that will, eventually, wind the clock back to every one of the 21,509 content items JR Online has published since October 2013.

LEFT: A pointer that appears on the teaser of every story ever published by JR Online to see what the hot-button issues of the day, or days gone buy, are

User comments can become a self-perpetuating situation.

For example, when a user sees a story has 10 or more comments posted to it, they are more likely to read the story – and see what fellow-users have had to say.

Of course, all comments are moderated before being published. Over the past week numerous comments have had to be deleted or sections of them expunged as they were considered unsuitable or illegal.

This is most often because they contain anti-Semitic or other racism, hate speech, or are users trolling (a frequent problem with comments on websites whereby the comment is not constructive, often unrelated to the topic and used as an excuse by the commentator to push their own agenda or attack the writer).

Some interesting posts this week

In many cases, only the latest post may have been made this week, and the stories themselves may hark back to older times:

I have come full circle was a self-introductory piece by the new editor of SA Jewish Report, Peta Krost Maunder, on 9 February. It has had ten welcoming posts – add to them if you like what Peta’s doing. In fact, anyone who has seen her first two editions (third one out this week) MUST like what she’s doing. The accolades are pouring in – to staffers, directors and on the website. “My career all started on Jewish newspapers,” writes Peta, and then took her on a tangent via mainstream print media, then onto television and finally working on magazines and other media. Now, she is back! A full circle indeed.

Africa’s ‘lost tribe’ of Jews in a pickle is another golden oldie that is regularly read and enjoyed its ninth comment this week. The story itself is about how the AJC was hopping mad as Rabbi Riskin inadvertently created a humanitarian crisis in Africa.

Israel offers consular services in Cape Town, also an oldie which keeps getting read month after month – likely as a result of Google searches for “Israel offers consular services Cape Town” and, again, had its own ninth comment posted this week.

King of controversy, consistently...

Titan clash: Judges head to head with corruptors, ideologues which has seen five user comments – of which three were expunged for being deemed trolling and earned the commentator, Choni Davidowitz, a scolding by the online editor. Regular users will know that the need to keep Choni and numerous other commentators in the bounds of our rules are regular events.

“We live in our own little underworld down here, in our ‘below-the-line’ world,” wrote user Adam last night in the latest post on Titan clash: Judges head to head with corruptors, ideologues. This statement encapsulates everything that users who post comments regularly enjoy in JR Online’s highly interactive community platform where every content item can be commented on.

Sifrin’s negativity towards Israel was a letter from Choni’s astute and charming wife, Miriam Davidowitz, that appeared on 9 February and has had four comments, three which earned scolding from moderators.

A blind eye in exchange for Israel support is risky was another recent column by Sifrin, a past, long-serving editor of the Report, on “Donald Trump’s controversial presidency” wrote Geoff, saying that it had caused a “general anxiety about the rise of nationalistic demagogues” among SA JEWRY. That post has earned Geoff eight comments to date, one of them from BDS-SA.

Risky politics: Bibi flatters pit bull Trump was the title of Geoff Sifrin’s 26 January Taking Issue column and that has seen eleven comments to date – as pro- and anti-Trump users argue not just with Sifrin, but with each other. This was a fabulous read – check it out, read the comments and feel free to have your own say as well.

Trump’s sledgehammer makes a villain of everyone appeared the following week and users have left five comments to date. “Wherever they live, most Jews have family memories of forebears arriving in a new country as immigrants or refugees after escaping from places such as Nazi Germany or Eastern Europe where they would be killed or persecuted if they stayed,” wrote Geoff.

Here are some of the more interesting tête-à-têtes currently being tussled over by our users:

Meet the Jews in Donald Trump's administration drew four comments so far, mainly targeting one single member of the Trump ‘Jewdiciary’ – can you guess who? “American Jews are watching the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency with both fear and hope,” wrote the author.

Talking tachlis, a Q&A with Prof Adam Habib also has four comments so far. Jewish Report asked Professor Adam Habib, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of SA’s largest university, Wits, some very tough questions. His answers were surprisingly frank.

Hair today, what will tomorrow bring… - another story with four comments to date, was the cover story of last week’s print edition of the newspaper, about Jewish schoolboys who have stood up for what they believe to be equal gender rights around the country over the past year.

This will open your eyes to Torah Law Also with four comments, this is a ‘dumbed down’ authorised and abridged version of Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein’s prestigious Hildesheimer Lecture at the Law School of Humboldt University in Berlin last month. Goldstein based his address on his doctoral thesis which looks at human rights from the perspective of Jewish law - updated for the world we live in now!

Haley: I’ll never abstain from anti-Israel resolutions Yet again carrying four comments, the story and video of Trump’s new USA ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, assured the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee at her confirmation hearing that she would always have Israel’s back and never refrain from using her veto power.

The conversations can get quite heated –
but somehow tend to remain light-hearted

SAJR Online adheres very strictly to its protocols, privacy policies and the like which can be found all neatly packaged in the LEGALS section. One of the most important to us, is theCOMMENT GUIDELINES – which apply equally to all - and differently for all known users vs. anonymous users.

So, users, check what your fellow-users have to say – and feel free to egg them on or rattle their cages. Relax, sip your tea and Chirp away!

But remember not to get too naughty, because you still need to get past our moderators before your comments are published.

1 Comment

1
Choni
22 Feb

Thanks for the complimentary comment of my "charming and astute" wife of 60 years. Much appreciated.